This year BookTalk will dovetail with the Campus Read; that is, we will read three books about Iran, its people, history, culture, and politics. Choosing what to read is both fun and challenging. I am working my way through a pile of books and wanted to share them with you. So far, I've read:
The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer. New York: Ecco/Harper Collins, 2008.
The author's own family escaped from Iran in 1982 when she was ten. That experience is reflected in The Septembers of Shiraz. The main character of the novel is Isaac Amin, a Jewish gem trader who is arrested by the Revolutionary Guard in Teheran and imprisoned. His only real crime is being Jewish in a country where Muslim fanatacism is taking over, but his wealth and family connections to the Shah's regime are also marks against him.
The Bathhouse by Farnoosh Moshiri. Seattle: Black Heron Press, 2001.Winner of the Black Heron Press Award for Social Fiction in 2001, this book is a powerful and compelling read. It tells the story of a seventeen-year-old girl who is arrested and imprisoned in a former bathhouse. Hers is a crime of association -- she is not political, but her brother and sister-in-law are. Moshiri's novel is based on interviews with several Iranian women who were imprisoned in such a bathhouse in the early years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The Bathhouse documents the torment endured by the prisoners and that makes it a tough book to read.
Others that await me are:
- The Age of Orphans by Laleh Kadivi
- Caspian Rain by Gina Nahai
- Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour
- Missing Soluch by Mahmud Dawlatābādī
- The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
I will keep you posted about what we decide for BookTalk and hope you will be part of our discussions. -- Marlene Anderson, Director of Library Services
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